Test – Crucial Ballistix 2 x 8 Go DDR4 2400 MHz : |Specs | CPU | Hashrate | Review | Config

Hi all!

After the test of a 2 x 8 GB DDR4 kit from Corsair (which you can see here) it is today at Crucial that we are going with once again a 16 GB kit but clocked at 2400 MHz this here, still in DDR4 with a model from the Ballistix Sport range. Found around € 150, even if it remains even higher than DDR3, prices are slowly starting to drop thanks to the arrival of Intel “Skylake” processors which finally democratize this memory which was only reserved until now. at the very high end (general public of course), let’s see what the little kit from Crucial has in the belly!

The kit from Crucial is therefore composed of two 8 GB strips, for a total of 16 GB, the heatsinks are dark gray. Unlike some Crucial has not implemented a standard 2133 MHz profile (supported by one or more XMP profiles allowing to go to higher speeds) and offers basic operation at 2400 MHz for latencies of 16-16-16 -39 and a voltage of 1.2V. An XMP profile is present but the settings are identical to the base speed, so the interest here is limited.
Offered at a price of around 150 €, the Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB kit will satisfy almost all users of the market, whether they are users of 3D rendering software, office automation or, of course, players who need a lot of memory.

The box of the kit from Crucial is very basic, in fact we are entitled to a transparent plastic box equipped with a sticker in the left corner. It contains the amount of memory, the number of modules, the frequency, the voltage as well as the serial numbers. We can’t say that Crucial is doing extravagantly, but this is a memory kit, it’s hard to blame them.

At the rear nothing exceptional once again, only a small description of each memory model in the Ballistix range, we learn that the “Sport” (therefore the memory of this test) are intended for the general public and “gamers. “,” Tactical “are intended for enthusiasts (with improved speeds and latencies) and” Elite “are logically for high-end kits with selected components and advanced settings. To summarize, we learn that today’s kit is an entry-level kit, and that in no way detracts from its interest because for Mr. Everyone has no need for “advanced” kits.

And here are the beasts! Dark gray radiators in brushed aluminum and black PCB, we like or hate the look, but one thing is certain it remains very sober. On the radiators there are 3 stickers, a large one that highlights the brand and model, another for the serial numbers and a last one that informs about the frequency, latency and voltage. As you can also see, we are dealing with a “low profile” memory which will therefore not interfere with the installation of a large be quiet type cooler! Dark Rock Pro 3, or Noctua NH-D15 and monsters of the genre.
The build quality is clearly not left out, we are faced with very well finished bars that exude quality.

Note that unlike DDR3 DDR4 strips do not have a straight PCB at the pins, in the center the pins are longer than at the sides, there may be a practical reason for this, such as a drop breakage during installation, I could not say!

As we can see in the photo above there are two radiators per strip, one on each side and they do not meet at the top leaving the PCB visible. Some would like to have the name of the brand written above to be able to play it with their friends when they look inside the PC, point of that here!

The test platform

The Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8GB 2400MHz Memory Kit has been tested with the configuration below:

The software used will be as follows:

Profil XMP et Overclocking

As I said above from the start the kit works at the frequency for which it was sold, namely 2400 MHz, so there is no adjustment of any kind to be made in the BIOS, which could be a very good stuff for those who don’t want to get their hands on it!

After a lot of tests, the kit is stable at a speed of 2800 MHz, i.e. an overclocking of 400 MHz compared to the original speed, while keeping the same timings but increasing the voltage from 1.2V to 1.35 V, completely satisfactory results even if they are not at the level of what I had managed to do with the Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 MHz kit overclocked to 3200 MHz. However, we must put it into perspective, because each kit is different and depending on the motherboards / processors the results can be very different, as it is, going from 2400 MHz to 2800 MHz is very satisfactory.

Aida64 5.30

Aida64 is a very good indicator of maximum achievable throughputs and responds very well to ramping up, it stands to reason that results are skyrocketing with today’s Crucial Ballistix Sport kit!
With the original frequencies, the kit from Crucial is logically placed behind the 2 Corsair kits tested previously, which is quite normal given the higher frequency of the latter, despite everything with 34.79 Gb / s in reading, 36.76 Gb / s in writing and 33.49 Gb / s in copy speed the ballistix clearly have nothing to be ashamed of, barely falling 10% behind the Corsairs.
Once overclocked to 2800 MHz, the speeds perfectly reflect the increase in frequency, 38.41 Gb / s in reading (+ 10.4%), 41.35 Gb / s in writing (+ 12.48%) and 37.41 Gb / s in copy speed (+ 11.7 %), thus exceeding the 2666 MHz kits from Corsair.
Now that the maximum bitrate is highlighted, let’s see what this gives in practice, because bitrate doesn’t have to mean huge gains, so let’s see it all right away!

Cinebench R15

We start with Cinebench R15, the increase in frequency shows a gain of course, but which remains rather marginal, indeed we go from a score of 634 (2400 MHz) to 638 (2800 MHz) once the kit is overclocked (2800 MHz) . Cinebench is therefore very clearly not very sensitive to memory overclocking.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a video encoding software and is more representative than the pure and hard benchmarks, here the PC must encode an .avi file of 860MB in .mp4. The gain by increasing the frequency is more significant than on Cinbench R15, in fact we go from 117s to 111s by increasing from 2400 MHz to 2800 MHz. The gain is there, even if it is only 5.4% when going from 2400 MHz to 2800 MHz.

WinRAR

WinRAR is also very fond of fast memory, from 5673 to 6021 (+ 6.13%) from 2400 MHz to 2800 MHz.

WPrime

Wprime, on the other hand, does not react much to the increase in frequency and offers similar results. At 2400 MHz the calculation takes 279.64s and at 2800 MHz 277.04, so much so that the memory frequency will hardly affect the results.

3DMark and Games

With 3DMark we also do not notice any difference, the results are identical (with a normal variation, there will never be two tests with the same results). On the other hand we can see something quite interesting in games, when the number of FPS is high and the graphics card can express itself as it feels we can see a very slight gain, indeed under Bioshock Infinite we gain 4 FPS by going from 2400 MHz to 2800 MHz (from 175.13 FPS to 179.64 FPS), on the other hand under Crysis 3 which remains very greedy (in terms of graphics card and processor) we gain absolutely nothing.
What can we conclude from this? If the graphics card is not limited by the processor then we can observe a very slight gain (of the order of 1 to 2%), otherwise the gain will be even more marginal.

We have arrived at the end of this test, what about the Crucial Ballistix Sport 2 X 8 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 kit?
DDR4 is gradually settling on the market and since the release of the latest “Skylake” processors from Intel, a large part of the new machines on the market will soon switch to this new standard, DDR3 is clearly at the end of its life!
Crucial offers here an entry-level kit for “gamers” and it goes without saying that it fulfills its role brilliantly. Unlike many brands Crucial has decided not to set a “base” frequency at 2133 MHz to offer directly at the first ignition the frequency for which the kit was sold, ie 2400 MHz, when necessary. go and activate the XMP profile on other kits to make the most of it, everything will be automatically configured here, newbies will be delighted here.
The build quality is excellent, the “low profile” format will allow the installation of monstrous coolers without incompatibilities and stability is clearly required, in addition to a contained price of 150 € the Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2 x 8 GB kit 2400 MHz will be a perfect starting point for anyone looking for a good amount of memory for their gamer config without having to fiddle with the bios to get the most out of it.

Many thanks to Crucial and Clotilde who allowed me to do this test.

Where to find Crucial Ballistix Sport 2 X 8 GB 2400 MHz DDR4?

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